The present invention relates to counter bags for surgical sponges.
During surgical procedures, absorbent sponges are utilized to absorb body fluids around the site of surgical incision. The sponges are normally provided in two sizes, e.g., a smaller size sponge on the order of about 4 inch.times.4 inch and a larger size on the order of 18 inch.times.18 inch. In the past, when the wetted sponges are removed from the patient's body, they have been placed in a kick bucket for retention during the surgical procedure. At the end of the surgical procedure, the sponges are removed from the kick bucket and were sorted according to size, after which they were counted to assure that no sponges were left in the patient's body. According to convention, the 4 inch.times.4 inch sponges were counted in groups of ten, and the 18 inch.times.18 inch sponges were counted in groups of five.
It will be apparent that the prior sorting and counting procedure was tedious and time consuming, and could be subject to error during the counting of sponges. A back strip has been proposed in U.S. Pat. No. 3,749,237 in an attempt to facilitate this procedure. This back strip has a spot heat seal which divides the pocket into two compartments to be used for small surgical sponges, and the spot can be broken open to use the entire pocket for one large laparotomy sponge. An alternate design is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,361,231 in which a heat seal line extends from a lower edge of each pocket toward the center to divide the pocket for two small surgical sponges, and an entire pocket can be used for one large surgical sponge.
The prior bag designs do not contain the fluid which drains off the sponges when the bag is removed from its stand for disposal. Typically, the bag is removed by folding the bag up from the bottom, containing the sponges and fluid together. The bag is then removed from a support stand and it is discarded with the sponges remaining in the pockets or pouches. During this time, there is a tendency for some of the fluid from the sponges to escape out of the bag during disposal resulting in possible spilling of fluid from the bag and possible contamination. In addition, when the spot seal in the previous bags were broken, holes remained in the bag where the seal was broken permitting a location for fluid to leak out of the pockets during disposal.